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Discoblog
« NCBI ROFL: Only in Oklahoma…
Taxes in Space! Should Space-Littering Countries Be Fined? »

Today in iPhones: The Taliban Can Have Them, Melinda Gates Can’t

iphone3.jpgSure, he may live in a country that banned all modern technology, including TV and the Internet, from 1996 to 2001. But Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, now relies on his iPhone for all the same reasons its other users are hooked.

The former ambassador, who spent nearly four years imprisoned in Guantanamo, is now back in Afghanistan and uses his iPhone for things like online banking and finding directions on his phone’s built-in GPS. He reportedly calls the device “necessary” in today’s world.

Meanwhile, the wife of eponymous Microsoft mogul Bill Gates remains cruelly iPhone-deprived. Melinda Gates recently admitted to Vogue that she and her Microsoft-founding husband have a household policy against Apple products. But this sacrifice doesn’t come without its costs: As she watches her friends using their Jobs-ian gadgets, she sometimes thinks, “Ooh, I wouldn’t mind having that iPhone.”

Related Content:
Discoblog: Macbook, Shmacbook. Where’s Our Limitless Movie Selection?
Bad Astronomy: Am I glad I didn’t buy an iPhone!

Image: Flickr / ten safe frogs

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March 4th, 2009 2:56 PM Tags: Apple, Bill Gates, phones, taliban
by Rachel Cernansky in Technology Attacks! | 4 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

  • Iphone Mom

    I had a blackberry for 4 years and just bought an iphone. It’s way better!!!
    Yesterday I downloaded my first game, JigSee, which lets you take a picture from the iphone camera and then turns it into a jig saw puzzle, and the kids love it!!!

  • http://www.nanogear.net/141/posts-about-apple-macbooks-as-of-march-4-2009/ Posts about Apple Macbooks as of March 4, 2009

    [...] on iMac’s standard wired keyboard (0) March 3, 2009 — Apple adds dual-band capabilities Today in iPhones: The Taliban Can Have Them, Melinda Gates Can’t – blogs.discovermagazine.com 03/04/2009 [ iphone3.jpg]Sure, he may live in a country that banned [...]

  • meelash

    The Taliban did not ban “modern technology,” they were not luddites. TV and internet was banned because they didn’t have the infrastructure to regulate the content.

    Stop spreading propaganda.

  • http://cheeptalk.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/taliban-jeff-sandeep-and-melinda-gates/ Taliban, Jeff, Sandeep and Melinda Gates « Cheap Talk

    [...] 2009 in Uncategorized | by sandeep What does Melinda Gates want that the rest of the four of us have? Tagsart banana seeds blog books california chicago coffee computers current events economics [...]





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